In a typical image forming apparatus, a card ID, which is information that identifies an ID card, has been registered in advance in correspondence to a user; if the card ID read from the ID card has been registered, a notification of successful authentication of the user is transmitted.
To use the ID card for authentication, the above-described typical image forming apparatus requires registering the card ID in correspondence to the user. This task must be manually carried out by, for example, a manager, so a lengthy time is taken until authentication with the ID card becomes possible.